#iri

So I stood up and did a handstand on my Guru's roof, to celebrate the notion of liberation. I felt the dusty tiles under my hands. I felt my own strength and balance. I felt the easy night breeze on the palms of my bare feet. This kind of thing -- a spontaneous handstand--isn't something a disembodied cool blue soul can do, but a human being can do it. We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands. ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#love

When angels speak of love they tell us it is only by loving that we enter an earthly paradise. They tell us paradise is our home and love our true destiny. ↗

— Bell Hooks

#love #spirituality #life

In my head this cruel unspeakable truth: that we battled and we cursed and we spilled each other’s blood, we relished our taste of hell and strangled heaven’s love. ↗

— Aberjhani

#fear #heaven #human-nature #love #spirituality

Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone. You must hurt or be hurt. ↗

— Lauren Oliver

#hurt #love #romance #love

To reach back and help, and expect neither reward nor even thanks. To reach back and help, because that is what spiritual beings do. ↗

— Brian L. Weiss

#love

Emeth came walking forward into the open strip of grass between the bonfire and the Stable. His eyes were shining, his face was solemn, his hand was on his sword-hilt, and he carried his head high. Jill felt like crying when she looked at his face. And Jewel whispered in the King's ear, "By the Lion's Mane, I almost love this young warrior, Calormene though he be. He is worthy of a better god than Tash. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#bravery #calormene #jewel #sacrifice #tash

A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble broken-hearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires. Their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is a humble broken-hearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit, and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behaviour. ↗

— Jonathan Edwards

#humility #joy #love #poor-in-spirit #love

Don't make the body do what the spirit does best, and don't put a big load on the spirit that the body could easily carry. ↗

— Rumi

#spirit #love

What mattered to her was that she loved God, whether or not He granted her the consolation and joy of His felt presence. ↗

— Brian Kolodiejchuk

#love

Love transforms pleasure into pain. ↗

— Imam Al-Busiri

#love